With 3:22 remaining in the third frame of Boston College women’s basketball’s Senior Night matchup against Virginia Tech, the Eagles trailed 60–53. For its four seniors—Kennedi Jackson, Kaylah Ivey, Dontavia Waggoner, and Andrea Daley— it looked like their last game in Conte Forum would end in a heartbreaking defeat.
A quick 5–0 run with baskets from Ivey and Daley cut the lead to just two. But the Eagles still had a long way to go.
Throughout a back-and-forth fourth quarter and overtime period, there were times when both BC (15–15, 6–11 Atlantic Coast) and Virginia Tech (17–11, 8–9 Atlantic Coast) thought they had the win in the bag.
Not usually a starter for the Eagles, Jackson got the start on Senior Night and showed up. She posted seven of BC’s first nine points.
“The thing I’m maybe most happy with was watching Kennedi just go off in that first quarter,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “Hearing her dad behind me and everyone going nuts for her, she needed that.”
T’yana Todd also had a big first quarter for the Eagles—scoring seven points in a row at one and ending the frame with 10 points.
A high-scoring first quarter saw the Eagles take a 32–25 lead heading into the second frame.
The second quarter was quite the opposite, though.
Both teams went cold in the frame, as the Hokies outscored the Eagles just 14–11.
Heading into halftime, BC held a 43–39 lead. Jackson tallied 13 first-half points for the Eagles.
The Hokies quickly heated up again to start the third quarter, posting 18 points in just over four minutes. VT opened up a 57–51 lead, forcing BC to call a timeout with 5:43 remaining.
BC fought back hard at the end of the third quarter, cutting the lead to two points on an Ivey layup with 2:34 remaining.
With 1:33 remaining in the third quarter and the Eagles still trailing by two, Daley committed a hard foul on the baseline. The foul led to a scuffle which included pushing.
After a near 10-minute review, Virginia Tech’s Rose Micheaux was ejected. The loss of Micheaux, a key starter for the Hokies, was felt by VT for the remainder of the night.
The Eagles eventually knotted the game at 66 on an and-one layup from Waggoner with 8:37 remaining.
After a back-and-forth eight minutes, Waggoner knotted the game again, this time at 79 with 11 seconds remaining, as the Eagles were able to get a stop and force overtime on the other end.
The overtime period was the Teya Sidberry show for BC. She recorded eight points in the frame, using her skillful back-to-the-basket moves to evade defenders.
“That was our first key to victory tonight, owning the boards,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “It was a team effort on the rebounding and that was fun.”
With 1:11 left and the game all square at 89, Ivey hit a clutch step-back 3-pointer, which ended up being the game’s last points. After an offensive foul from the Hokies and a last-minute stand by BC, the Eagles took the matchup 92–89.
“We really wanted to win this one,” Ivey said. “It’s the last time in Conte, no matter what happened in the past, we really wanted to win this one.”
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